Khmer New year

Once upon a time, when legends were still young and magic walked the earth, there was a very powerful God named Kapila who lived in the paradise of Brahma. One day, he decided that he would like to set a test for his disciple the Bodhisattva Thomobal (formerly an incarnation of the Buddha), and asked him to solve three parbols. If he couldn't find the answer before seven days and seven nights, Thomobal would be decapitated. If he could solve them, then it would be Kapila's head that would be on the block. On the sixth day Thomobal, in a state of great agitation, not yet having discovered the answers to the three parabols, happened to see two eagles talking about the enigmas. Hidden from their view, he was able to eavesdrop on the eagles' conversation and so discovered the answers to his quest.
He immediately returned to Kapila and told him his news. On hearing this, Kanila, being a worthy and honourable God, wasted no time in arranging his own decapitation, as agreed. But if the decapitated head were to touch the ground, then the whole of the earth would start to burn uncontrolably, thrown into the air it would stop forever the rain, sunk in the ocean it would make the waters evaporate.
So Kapila called his seven daughters and advised them to take great care when receiving his head on a platter. After having told them this, he cut off his own head and gave it to his eldest daughter Tungsa. Since then, each daughter on the last day of each lunar year has, one by one, carried the head before them on a golden platter, while walking around Mount Meru, imitating the course of the sun. Mount Meru is the mythical five peaked summit that contains the city of Brahma, home of the Gods. One sister trades places with the another on the New Year.
The daughter is escorted by a prosession of all the "Devodas", who are the Gods and Goddesses of the sky (100,000 time million in number) all of them splendidly dressed and perfumed. Then all together, the Gods bathe in the Anotta (one of the seven great lakes of the Himalaya) to purifiy themselves. After this, Vissakarma, the architect of Paradise, edifies the room of the Fine Law and offers it to the multitude of Devodas. All of them go inside and observe the precepts in order to be happy, prosperous, without sin and to live long. In this act, they show humans the path to purity, blessing them at the same time.
The "Horas" , the kingdom's royal astrologists, long ago decreed that the Khmer New Year was to coincide with the Holy Pilgrimage of the Devodas at Mount Meru. On earth, human beings also practise the rites of purification. During the three days of the New Year ceremonies, modern Cambodia still follows this ancient traditions. Says the almanac of the Horas (written in 1910) "May everybody sweep, clean inside the boundaries of your home and all the living places. And may you. during the night hours, make preparations, light lamps. torches and incense, collect flowers and make garlands for the greeting and reception of the new Devodas.
During the three first days of the New Year, may the husband not have knowledge of his wife. Do not kill animals that are on earth, neither the ones that are flying in the sky, nor the ones who are swimming in the waters. Do not conclude any business affairs. Do not dispute. beat, insult, curse any other person. May no one lie or say bad things about people, nor behave gruffly with his subordinates. May everybody go about their religious tasks, because it is their duty that the first seven days. of the year, especially the first three, be entirely pure. Because a year that starts well is progressing and finishing well."
Indeed, the celebration of Chol Chnam (entering the year) is above all else, religious. In all the pagodas of the kingdom, monks and other practioners clean the temples and the statues of Buddha. With great care, they bathe them in perfumed water. The main entrance of the wats (pagodas) are decorated with garlands of flowers and coconut leaves.
In Phnom Penh., the King leads a procession, amidst the sound of blowing conchs (horns made from sea shells found in the warm waters off the Cambodian coastline) in front of the altar specially built for the occasion, outside the Throne Room. The procession comes to greet the protecting Gods of the world and the kingdom. The leader of the astrologists
invokes them in Pali, an ancient Buddhist language, praying to them to accord the King, the court, the functionaries, and all the Khmer people health, happiness, peace, abundance and plenty of rain in the coming year. Then follows the King's bath, A big bronze vase is filled with water blessed by Buddhist monks. Then the head Baku, the brahmans
(magicians) of the court, takes water out of the vase and pours it on the Sovereign and presents Him with a sea shell filled with water to wash His face and His hair. Meanwhile, the Baku recites a magical formula to ward off bad luck. Then the King splashes perfumed water on the statues of Hindu and Buddhist Gods. The last day of the Khmer New Year celebrations, Long Sak, is considered to be the time where one steps inside the new year. Traditionally, Princesses, Princes and functionaries of Phnom Penh used to call on His Majesty the King to wish him happiness and long life. All of them would swear allegiance to their King for many, a living God. The salutations would then be followed by horse and elephant races, fights between men and elephant races, fights between men and elephants, Khmer boxing matches and other merriments.
Outside, in pagodas, monks would also bathe in perfumed water contained in big clay jars. And the royal ceremony would be mirrored throughout society with all families enjoying their own adaptation of Long Sak and it's rites of purification. Everywhere in Cambodia, especially in pagodas, people would perform the ceremony of Poon Phnoms (to erect sand hills ) generally in groups of five or nine phnoms (hills). The Poon Phnoms are arranged in this formation: one in the centre, four at each point of the compass and four more between them, totaling nine.
In the same way as the Gods walk around Mount Meru, the local folk walk around their own holy mountains. En route, they deliver a handful of sand as they reach each Phnom, and thus give blessings to the Gods, and help lighten the karmic burden carried by their own souls. During the night, the pagodas rejoice with the sound of laughing children and people all playing traditional games. By foregoing sleep, they pretend to guard the sacred hills and ward off the bad spirits and the animals which could be tempted

to destroy the Phnoms.Today, in the villages and even in the streets of Phnom Penh, the kids play Cha-ol Chhoung and Angkunh late into the evening to receive the guardian angels for the new year. The games also play a strong social role as the boys and girls meet perhaps to start a lifelong romance over a krama or an exotic fruit. In the provinces there are some local customs rarely seen in the city such as revellers throwing buckets of water over each other and dances that reflect the rural lifestyle.
One of them is the Trott dance, origination from the north-western provinces of Siem Reap, Battambang and Pursat. Some of the dancers carry a wooden kancha covered in jingling bells, representing a tree with fruits. They hit the ground with the kancha to give the rhythm that accompanies the slow and hesitant movements of the dancers and lilting lyrics of the poem. Two dancers tip toe through the crowd astride wooden stags, a symbol of life, chased by luckless hunters armed with bows and arrows.
The trott dance opened last December's National Folk Dancing Festival at Angkor Wat. Minister for Culture and Fine Arts His Excellency Mr. Nouth Narang, described it as "the cosmic renovation dance par excellence that is performed during the Khmer New Year, to celebrate the end of the dry season and the beginning of the agrarian cycle." The message is very clear: with the New Year, the world's rebirth and the help of the Gods, human beings, animals, and plants have another chance to reconcile and come back together to live in peace.
The last day of the Khmer New Year celebrations, Long Sak, is considered to be the time where one steps inside the new year. Traditionally, Princesses, Princes and functionaries of Phnom Penh used to call on His Majesty the King to wish him happiness and long life. All of them would swear allegiance to their King for many, a living God. The salutations would then be followed by horse and elephant races, fights between men and elephant races, fights between men and elephants, Khmer boxing matches and other merriments.
Outside, in pagodas, monks would also bathe in perfumed water contained in big clay jars. And the royal ceremony would be mirrored throughout society with all families enjoying their own adaptation of Long Sak and it's rites of purification. Everywhere in Cambodia, especially in pagodas, people would perform the ceremony of Poon Phnoms (to erect sand hills ) generally in groups of five or nine phnoms (hills). The Poon Phnoms are arranged in this formation: one in the centre, four at each point of the compass and four more between them, totaling nine. n the same way as the Gods walk around Mount Meru, the local folk walk around their own holy mountains. En route,
they deliver a handful of sand as they reach each Phnom, and thus give blessings to the Gods, and help lighten the karmic burden carried by their own souls.
IDuring the night, the pagodas rejoice with the sound of laughing children and people all playing traditional games. By foregoing sleep, they pretend to guard the sacred hills and ward off the bad spirits and the animals which could be tempted to destroy the Phnoms.
Today, in the villages and even in the streets of Phnom Penh, the kids play Cha-ol Chhoung and Angkunh late into the evening to receive the guardian angels for the new year. The games also play a strong social role as the boys and girls meet perhaps to start a lifelong romance over a krama or an exotic fruit. In the provinces there are some local customs rarely seen in the city such as revellers throwing buckets of water over each other and dances that reflect the rural lifestyle.
One of them is the Trott dance, origination from the north-western provinces of Siem Reap, Battambang and Pursat. Some of the dancers carry a wooden kancha covered in jingling bells, representing a tree with fruits. They hit the ground with the kancha to give the rhythm that accompanies the slow and hesitant movements of the dancers and lilting lyrics of the poem. Two dancers tip toe through the crowd astride wooden stags, a symbol of life, chased by luckless hunters armed with bows and arrows.
The trott dance opened last December's National Folk Dancing Festival at Angkor Wat. Minister for Culture and Fine Arts His Excellency Mr. Nouth Narang, described it as "the cosmic renovation dance par excellence that is performed during the Khmer New Year, to celebrate the end of the dry season and the beginning of the agrarian cycle." The message is very clear: with the New Year, the world's rebirth and the help of the Gods, human beings, animals, and plants have another chance to reconcile and come back together to live in peace.
he Game of Angkunh
Cambodian Frizbee with a Fruit
The angkunh is a fruit that grows on trees found in the provinces of Stung Treng and Kratie. It is round with two flat sides and a diameter of about six centimetres. When ripe, it has a hard skin and turns the colour of mahogany. The game of angkunk requires several players with two mixed teams of young boys and girls. Each participant takes turn to throw the fruit, frizbee or free style, into the opponent's area- a triangle made from three angkunh stuck into the ground. A goal is scored when a player knocks over all the angkunhs or when an angkunh lands in the triangle. The victor wins the right to gently tap the loser's bent knee with the two flat sides of the fruit-the sound of which is a source of much amusement.
Game of Cha-ol Chhoung
Hit me again with that song of love The most versatile of traditional Cambodian garments, the krama, (a multi-coloured rectangular piece of woven cotton ) is employed this time to create the game of Cha-ol Chhoung. A krama is rolled into a coconut sized ball , with one length left free. This is to allow the players to take the ball and swing it around and then release it high into the air towards the opposition's half.
There are two teams-boys versus the girls. The game begins with one of the boys throwing the ball into the air. The girls must catch the ball before it touches the ground. On catching it, she must throw it straight back at the boys- with the aim of hitting one of them. If a boy is hit, he must go into the girls' camp and sing a song. At half-time,, the teams are reversed with the boys doing the catching and the girls doing the throwing and singing.
A game of Cha-ol Chhoung always draws a large audience keen to hear the humourously improvised songs. teasing each other over who it was they intended to hit with the ball and woo with their lyrical talents.
An old song of Cha-ol Chhoung
The BoyI throw the Chhoung and I aim at my lover, Be very careful, my dear that my Chhoung doesn't touch the ground.
The GirlThrow it to me. and don't worry. If the Chhoung touches the ground, I will sing for you.
The BoyHere is the Chhoung, Be careful Or you will sing even twice. If you catch the Chhoung, wait for a while. To throw it back, wait for our union consummated. I look to the South and I see banana trees in flower. Escorted with thirty of his friends, he comes to ask for the young girl's hand. The father says no, but the mother says yes. She gives him her daughter, wanting to eat pig heads. (wedding offerings). I look to the South and I see distinctly some coconut trees. Would you please tell the beautiful girl Im not to take a husband.

Government Ministries

Name of Government Organization

1. Office of the Council of Ministers
2. Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries
3. Ministry of Commerce
4. Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts
5. Ministry of Economy and Finance
6. Ministry of Education Youth and sports
7. Ministry of Environment
8. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
9. Ministry of Health
10. Ministry of Industry Mines and Energy
11. Ministry of Information
12. Ministry of interior
13. Ministry of jastis
14. Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training
15. Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning & konstrukshan
16. Ministry of National Defense
17. Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Inspection
18. Ministry of Planning
19. Ministry of Post and Telecommunication
20. Ministry of Public Works and Transport
21. Ministry of Religions and Cults
22. Ministry of Rural Development
23. Ministry of Social Affairs Veteran and Youth rahabiliteshan
24. Ministry of Tourism
25. Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology
26. Ministry of Women Affairs
27. Municipality of Phnom Penh
28. Secretariat of Public Service
29. Secretariat of Civil aviashan
30. National Information Communications Technology Development Authority (NiDA)
31. Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Cambodia to the United Nations

khmer be careful Border for our Countried

The Tangle of Alliances

The Tangle of Alliances
Such were the mechanics that brought the world's major nations into the war at one time or another. It's clear from the summary above that the alliance system was as much at fault as anything in bringing about the scale of the conflict.
What was intended as a strictly limited war - a brief war - between accuser and accused, Austria-Hungary and Serbia, rapidly escalated into something that was beyond the expectations of even the most warlike ministers in Berlin (and certainly Vienna, which quickly became alarmed at spiralling events in late July and sought German reassurances).
It's possible to delve deeply into European history in the quest to unearth the roots of the various alliances that were at play in 1914. However, for our purposes it serves to date the origins of the core alliances back to Bismarck's renowned intrigues, as he set about creating a unified Germany from the loose assembly of German confederated states in the 1860s.
Bismarck's Greater Germany

One Thing Led to Another

So then, we have the following remarkable sequence of events that led inexorably to the 'Great War' - a name that had been touted even before the coming of the conflict।

1. Austria-Hungary, unsatisfied with Serbia's response to her ultimatum (which in the event was almost entirely placatory: however her jibbing over a couple of minor clauses गावे
2. Austria-Hungary her sought-after cue) declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914।
3. Russia, bound by treaty to Serbia, announced mobilisation of its vast army in her defence, a slow process that would take around six weeks to complete।
4. Germany, allied to Austria-Hungary by treaty, viewed the Russian mobilisation as an act of war against Austria-Hungary, and after scant warning declared war on Russia on 1 August।
5. France, bound by treaty to Russia, found itself at war against Germany and, by extension, on Austria-Hungary following a German declaration on 3 August. Germany was swift in invading neutral Belgium so as to reach Paris by the shortest possible route।
6. Britain, allied to France by a more loosely worded treaty which placed a "moral obligation" upon her to defend France, declared war against Germany on 4 August. Her reason for entering the conflict lay in another direction: she was obligated to defend neutral Belgium by the terms of a 75-year old With Germany's invasion of Belgium on 4 August, and the Belgian King's appeal to Britain for assistance, Britain committed herself to Belgium'sdefence later that day। Like France, she was by extension also at war with Austria-Hungary.
7. With Britain's entry into the war, her colonies and dominions abroad variously offered military and financial assistance, and included Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa।
8. United States President Woodrow Wilson declared a U.S. policy of absolute neutrality, an official stance that would last until 1917 when Germany's policy of unrestricted submarine warfare - which seriously threatened America's commercial shipping (which was in any event almost entirely directed towards the Allies led by Britain and France) - forced the U.S. to finally enter the war on 6 April 1917
9. Japan, honouring a military agreement with Britain, declared war on Germany on 23 August 1914। Two days later Austria-Hungary responded by declaring war on Japan.
10. Italy, although allied to both Germany and Austria-Hungary, was able to avoid entering the fray by citing a clause enabling it to evade its obligations to both. In short, Italy was committed to defend Germany and Austria-Hungary only in the event of a 'defensive' war; arguing that their actions were 'offensive' she declared instead a policy of neutrality. The following year, in May 1915, she finally joined the conflict by siding with the Allies against her two former allies.
    The Tangle of Alliances

Such were the mechanics that brought the world's major nations into the war at one time or another। It's clear from the summary above that the alliance system was as much at fault as anything in bringing about the scale of the conflict.

What was intended as a strictly limited war - a brief war - between accuser and accused, Austria-Hungary and Serbia, rapidly escalated into something that was beyond the expectations of even the most warlike ministers in Berlin (and certainly Vienna, which quickly became alarmed at spiralling events in late July and sought German reassurances).
It's possible to delve deeply into European history in the quest to unearth the roots of the various alliances that were at play in 1914. However, for our purposes it serves to date the origins of the core alliances back to Bismarck's renowned intrigues, as he set about creating a unified Germany from the loose assembly of German confederated states in the 1860s

Feature Articles - The Causes of World War One

June 28 in saarajevo
We'll start with the facts and work back: it may make it all the easier to understand how World War One actually happened. The events of July and early August 1914 are a classic case of "one thing led to another" - otherwise known as the treaty alliance system.
The explosive that was World War One had been long in the stockpiling; the spark was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. Ferdinand's death at the hands of the Black Hand, a Serbian nationalist secret society, set in train a mindlessly mechanical series of events that culminated in the world's first global war.
Austria-Hungary's Reaction
Austria-Hungary's reaction to the death of their heir (who was in any case not greatly beloved by the Emperor, Franz Josef, or his government) was three weeks in coming. Arguing that the Serbian government was implicated in the machinations of the Black Hand (whether she was or not remains unclear, but it appears unlikely), the Austro-Hungarians opted to take the opportunity to stamp its authority upon the Serbians, crushing the nationalist movement there and cementing Austria-Hungary's influence in the Balkans.
It did so by issuing an ultimatum to Serbia which, in the extent of its demand that the assassins be brought to justice effectively nullified Serbia's sovereignty. Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary, was moved to comment that he had "never before seen one State address to another independent State a document of so formidable a character."
Austria-Hungary's expectation was that Serbia would reject the remarkably severe terms of the ultimatum, thereby giving her a pretext for launching a limited war against Serbia।

However, Serbia had long had Slavic ties with Russia, an altogether different proposition for Austria-Hungary. Whilst not really expecting that Russia would be drawn into the dispute to any great extent other than through words of diplomatic protest, the Austro-Hungarian government sought assurances from her ally, Germany, that she would come to her aid should the unthinkable happen and Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary.

Prime minister: Hun Sen

Hun Sen, one of the world's longest-serving prime ministers, has been in power in various coalitions since 1985.
He was re-elected by parliament in July 2004 after nearly a year of political stalemate. His Cambodian People's Party (CPP) won general elections in 2003, but without enough seats for it to rule अलोने It finally struck a deal with the royalist Funcinpec party, which at the time was led by Prince Norodom Ranariddh, in June 2004.
Hun Sen is no stranger to controversy. He seized power from his then co-prime minister, Prince Ranariddh, in 1997. More recently, some Western countries have said his rule has become increasingly authoritarian.
Born in 1952, Hun Sen joined the Communist Party in the late 1960s and, for a time, was a member of the Khmer Rouge. He has denied accusations that he was once a top official within the movement, saying he was only an ordinary soldier.
During the Pol Pot regime in the late 1970s he joined anti-Khmer Rouge forces based in Vietnam.

किंग नोरोदोम सिहामोनी

Head of state: King Norodom Sihamoni The son of former king Norodom Sihanouk, King Sihamoni was sworn in as monarch on 29 October 2004. The former king had abdicated because of poor health.
Born in 1953, he studied in Czechoslovakia. He left Cambodia for France after the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. He is a trained classical ballet dancer.
Cambodia's kings once enjoyed a semi-divine status; today, the monarch's role is mainly ceremonial.